The existing configurations of reciprocating internal combustion engines are comprised of a piston moving up and down within a cylinder or several cylinders incorporated within a block assembly. Said block has a cylinder head, which encompasses an intake and exhaust valve for the insertion of fuel and removal of the spent exhaust gases after combustion. This assembly also referred to as an internal combustion engine operates with four cycles defined as; Intake, Compression, Power and Exhaust—each function of which occurs in one-half turn increments of a rotating crankshaft that takes the movement of the pistons up and down movements and converts them to a rotation shaft making this power usable for today's automotive vehicles and powering machinery.
Current existing designs of internal combustion mix the air/fuel mixture by virtue of the “swoosh” and “squish” of the piston moving as it approaches the top of the compression stroke. The piston either causes the air/fuel mixture to move around based on the shape of the top of the piston (swoosh) or as the piston reaches the top of the reciprocating stroke squeezing the air/fuel mixture between the top of the piston and the cylinder head (squish). The problem with existing designs to date is they are inefficient because they are usually flat on top or a dish that is aerodynamically foiled both in their ability to homogenize fuel and the ultimate problematic deficiency that results in detonation or premature combustion of the air/fuel mixture. This results in premature burning of the air/fuel mixture using up the fuel charge while resulting in no production of power but further that the premature ignition of the air/fuel mixture can oppose the upward stroke of the piston on the compression stroke thereby lowering the producible power of the engine when the piston finally rolls over into the power stroke.
There are several factors that affect the efficiency of the internal combustion engine. Size of the engine, number of cylinders, available amount of the fuel source, size and efficiency of the exhaust system attached to the engine. All of these are able to be changed and effected from the outside of the engine.
After these things are established and perfected the only other platform to modify is the internal components and processes. Historically, the internal combustion engine design has remained pretty consistent with only relatively minor internal changes. The most prevailing modifications over the years has been to camshafts lift and duration, increasing bore and stroke, types and sizes of intake and exhaust valves, shapes of cylinder head combustion chambers and lastly use of valve lifter types and apparatus.
Most recently, the next frontier is into atomization and homogenization of the fuel mixture, increasing the amount of air and pressure that gets into the cylinder and clearing exhaust out of the engine. These items together speak to increases to efficiency but current internal changes to date have had minimal result.